September 23, 1939

Sigmund Freud (May 6, 1856 to September 23, 1939) arrived in London in 1938. His library was brought along when the (immediate) family escaped Vienna. It was of course a terrifying time: at one point his daughter Anna had been taken away by the Nazis and, according to a Writer's Almanac article, Sigmund Freud supplied her with a pill of poison should that be her only means of escape.

But let's return to an earlier point in the 1930's when Freud still practised in his chosen home, Vienna, capital of Austria. What was Freud's attitude toward domestic cats? I have found contradictory perhaps stories, but now I will quote the poet "H. D." Her letters were part of a volume published in 2002, Analyzing Freud: Letters of H.D., Bryher, and Their Circle. The blurb for this book says:

The poet H.D. (1886-1961) was in psychoanalysis with Sigmund Freud in Vienna during the spring of 1933 and again in the fall of 1934. She visited him daily at his study at 19 Berggasse, while outside Nazi thugs and militia bullied their way through the streets. Freud was old, and fragile. H.D. was forty-six and despairing of her writing life, which seemed to have reached a dead end, for all her success.... 

This book is the source for our quote:

HD was horrified to discover Freud didn't like cats and greatly preferred dogs... [Later she recalled] I was distressed once when he told me of a cat and dog fight. He was for the dog--some of his own chows of course. But I was not happy at the fate of the cat. "Like that," said the professor...

HD said nothing, then, in response to Freud's story.